Since the launch of the Petition[i] to remove China from the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) permanent members a few months ago, questions[ii] arise on the legal feasibility of the process of removal of China, citing the veto power of this country. This note is to reply to these questions.
It is important to note that the removal of a country like China from the UNSC is a political act, whose inherent characteristic is that it will happen when there is justification, which the Petition tries to demonstrate, and enough political will from the governments and people in the world, whose opinion the Petition would like to raise.
The removal of a country from the UNSC is however not an unprecedented judicial act. The Republic of China (ROC, or Taiwan) was removed in 1971 from the UNSC and the UN by the General Assembly Resolution 2758[iii]. This Resolution was a response to another Resolution, numbered 1668 in 1961[iv], stipulating that a change of representation of a founder Member at the UN is an important question and would therefore require a two thirds majority of all voting members, following the UN Charter[v], Article 18-2.
On 15 July 1971, 17 UN members, led by Albania, requested that a question of the "Restoration of the lawful rights of the People's Republic of China in the United Nations" be placed on the provisional agenda of the twenty-sixth session of the UN General Assembly. Despite the reaction of the United States (US), who requested that the role of the ROC should also be considered while discussing the representation of China in the UN, the Resolution 2758 was adopted during a plenary meeting vote on 25 October 1971. 76 UN Member Countries voted in favour, 35 voted against, with 17 abstentions, to remove ROC from the UN by unequivocal clauses:
“The General Assembly,
…. Decides…to expel forthwith the representatives of Chiang Kai-shek from the place which they unlawfully occupy at the United Nations and in all the organizations related to it.”
The adoption of the Resolution 2758 confirmed the first point raised in this note about the political characteristics of the removal process of a Member country from the UN. Ultimately, the UN is a political organization where Member countries act based on their political will. Much can be learned about this by reading the Agenda of the day that the UN adopted the Resolution 2758 in the Official Records of the UN General Assembly 26th Session Plenary Meeting[vi].
While the political aspect of the Resolution 2758 is evident, its adoption despite the reject of the US, who is a UNSC permanent member, and of the ROC, also a UNSC permanent member and the country directly affected by the Resolution, provides a very strong judicial precedent to the case of removal/replacement of a UN member from the UN and the UNSC. The ROC and the US were clearly not able to use their veto power to stop the removal of the ROC and the entry of the People's Republic of China (PRC). It was interpreted that because the question of representation of China was voted as an important question in the Resolution 1668 and thus needed to be voted directly by the General Assembly with two thirds majority.
The motion to remove the ROC by the PRC did not happen during one day in 1971. It was initiated at least 10 years earlier, in 1961 with the Resolution 1668 recommending the needed voting conditions for such a change.
A similar judicial route could be applied to remove the incumbent PRC from the UN and consequently restore the role of ROC, by applying again the Resolution 1668 regarding the question of representation of China in the UN. This undeniably important issue could be requested to be placed on the agenda of a UN General Assembly session by one or more than one country. It is what the Petition would like to mobilise for.
References:
[i] Petition to remove China from UN Security Council permanent members having actually more than 38 thousand signatures: https://www.change.org/p/general-secretary-of-the-united-nations-and-world-leaders-remove-china-from-un-security-council-permanent-members
[ii] Xung quanh lời kêu gọi 'loại TQ' khỏi Hội đồng Bảo an LHQ: https://www.bbc.com/vietnamese/vietnam-52844965
[iii] UN Resolution 2758 in 1971: Restoration of the lawful rights of the People's Republic of China in the United Nations : resolution adopted by the General Assembly https://digitallibrary.un.org/record/192054?ln=en
[iv] UN Resolution 1668 in 1961: Representation of China in the United Nations : resolution adopted by the General Assembly https://digitallibrary.un.org/record/205650?ln=en
[v] UN Charter: https://www.un.org/en/sections/un-charter/un-charter-full-text/
[vi] Agenda of the UN Resolution 2758 in 1971: Restoration of the lawful rights of the People's Republic of China in the United Nations : resolution adopted by the General Assembly https://digitallibrary.un.org/record/654350?ln=en